| Luke 2:25
| And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was in him.
| A man ... named Simeon, whom some conjecture to have been one of the Jewish priests. --- Waiting for the consolation of Israel, for the happy coming of the Messias. --- And the Holy Ghost was in him, by the spirit of grace and of prophecy. (Witham) --- The consolation here expected by Holy Simeon, was the coming of the Messias, and the consequent redemption of mankind from sin and the devil; not a redemption only, as some carnal Jews thought, from the power of temporal enemies. These supposed the Messias was to come in order to raise them in power above all nations, to whom before his coming they had been subject. (St. Gregory of Nyssa in Dionysius) --- Many have pretended that Simeon was a priest; the best and oldest interpreters say he was a laic. (Bible de Vence)
|